奥特曼和马斯克的竞争打到了天上：拟收购可回收火箭公司，为太空数据中心铺路

Core Insights - Elon Musk is considered one of the key drivers of technological advancement in the U.S., not only through his own companies but also by fostering competition among peers [1] - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has shown interest in entering the space launch sector, potentially competing with Musk's SpaceX, through discussions with rocket manufacturer Stoke Space [1][5] - Stoke Space, founded by former Blue Origin engineers, aims to develop a reusable rocket system that could outperform SpaceX [2][3] Company Developments - Stoke Space was established in 2019 and is working on the Nova rocket, which aims for both first and second-stage reusability [2] - The Nova rocket can deliver payloads of 3 tons to low Earth orbit in fully reusable mode, and up to 7 tons in expendable mode, filling a market gap between Rocket Lab's Electron and SpaceX's Falcon 9 [3] - In October, Stoke Space completed a $510 million Series D funding round, along with $100 million in debt financing, led by the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund [3] Industry Context - In March, the U.S. Space Force selected Stoke Space for the National Security Space Launch program, allowing it to compete for $5.6 billion in launch contracts over the next decade [4] - Altman's interest in space is partly driven by his vision of building data centers in space, a concept he has publicly discussed [4] - Other companies, including Google and Axiom Space, are also exploring similar space-based data center initiatives [4] Competitive Landscape - Although discussions between Altman and Stoke Space did not materialize, OpenAI is currently facing significant competitive pressure from Google's Gemini 3, which has rapidly gained market share [5] - Altman is also an investor in Longshot Space, a company developing a unique launch system using a large pneumatic cannon, which could drastically reduce launch costs [5][7] - Longshot's technology aims to achieve speeds of 25 to 30 Mach, with initial tests already reaching 4.6 Mach [8]